FCC Plans to Grade Phone Corporations on Robocall Blocking

A telephone rings throughout lunch. Unknown quantity. The caller is a scammer impersonating the IRS. Again. The FCC is finished pretending that is acceptable. The company’s Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau printed a public discover on September 2, 2026, proposing a Robocall Mitigation Scorecard — a public score system for wi-fi, wireline, and VoIP suppliers on how successfully they block unlawful spam calls. The timing isn’t coincidental: a PIRG report from February 2025 graded roughly two dozen carriers, and about half failed outright.

Think of it as Rotten Tomatoes to your telephone firm — besides the stakes are your grandmother’s life financial savings, not a nasty motion film.

What the Scorecard Actually Measures

Forget checkbox compliance — the FCC is now chasing actual outcomes, not paperwork.

The proposed Scorecard blends two metric sorts: conduct-based (did the provider deploy call-blocking instruments, reply to traceback requests from the Industry Traceback Group?) and outcome-based (did unlawful calls really lower for purchasers?). Grading codecs into account embody quantity scales, letter grades, or low/medium/high-risk tiers.

Data sources would come with:

• Provider-reported blocking statistics and Robocall Mitigation Database filings
• Third-party name analytics companies with aggregated spam-rate information
• Consumer complaints from the FCC and FTC
• FCC enforcement actions and warnings
• STIR/SHAKEN caller ID authentication deployment standing

The Scorecard additionally tracks false positives — calls out of your physician or child’s college {that a} provider’s aggressive filters unintentionally block. That’s not a footnote. It’s a core metric.

“Phone customers should absolutely feel empowered to paying too much speak with their wallets.” — Teresa Murray, client watchdog director, U.S. Public Interest Research Group

Good Idea, Complicated Execution

Strong intentions imply little if the underlying information can’t be trusted.

The FCC itself admits {that a} client grievance “does not necessarily indicate a failure to stop an illegal call.” Complaint information is messy and tough to normalize throughout suppliers of vastly totally different sizes.

Murray’s place is cautious: the FCC’s robocall efforts have been “disappointing for years,” even after the 2019 TRACED Act mandated stronger enforcement. PIRG’s 2025 report confirms the hole — solely Charter/Spectrum, Comcast/Xfinity, and Nextlink earned A grades. Verizon and Dish/Boost Mobile have been amongst these with failing grades. AT&T and T-Mobile landed at B. FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez minimize to the purpose: the Scorecard solely will increase client consciousness “if it includes the right information.”

Half-measures have delivered half-results for years.

Switching carriers isn’t like canceling a streaming subscription. But public accountability has moved telecom firms earlier than. Advocates suggest requiring suppliers to show scores prominently on web sites, payments, and advertising and marketing supplies — not buried in an FCC docket — which is the place actual stress will get utilized. Murray calls the Scorecard “just the start of a new conversation.” The query is whether or not the FCC really finishes one.